Crayola Bright and Bold Broad Line Markers, Priced

Broad line is the coverage nib. Crayola's bright and bold broad line markers run to 38 listings here at a median $11.94 and a median 4.8 rating, the highest median of any Crayola sub-range on this site. A broad nib fills a colouring-book shape in a stroke or two and cannot hold a thin outline. That is the trade, and it is not fixable.

Broad line is the nib Crayola is known for, and bright and bold are the colour tiers stacked on top of it. Neither changes the ink. What the nib changes is how fast a shape fills and how closely a line can be followed, and those two facts decide whether this is the right box. The buyer counts across the whole brand are at what buyers report about crayola markers.

The phrase draws 500 searches a month with no settled difficulty score, commercial and transactional and branded. It is a box being bought rather than a category being researched.

The 38 listings

The median across all 38 is $11.94 at a median 4.8 rating. That rating is one tenth above Crayola's brand median of 4.7 across 194 products and two tenths above the 4.6 site median. Whatever else is true about this range, buyers are unusually happy with it.

Price per marker swings by more than ten times across the table, from ten cents on a classic ten-count to $1.23 on a bold eight. What you pay for at the top of that range is the colour tier and the barrel, not the ink. The Clicks entry is the clearest example: $1.20 a marker for a retractable body with no cap to lose.

Where the ink works

Paper is a works verdict at 40 searches a month and it is where a broad nib belongs. Glass is works at 1,480 and washes off with water, ceramic rinses off glaze, skin is works at 750 and car glass is works at 500. Cardboard is conditional at 410 and absorbs into the flute unless the stroke is light, which is exactly the stroke a broad nib does not make. Fabric is conditional at 1,360, out of most cotton and not out of everything. Wood, rock and chalkboard fail.

What a broad nib actually buys

Coverage rate. A broad nib puts down several times the ink of a fine one per stroke, which is why a colouring-book shape fills in one or two passes rather than eight. On a large page that is the difference between finishing and abandoning, and for a child it is the difference between a solid block of colour and a scribbled one.

What it costs is precision and, less obviously, ink life per page. The barrel holds the same ink, and a broad nib empties it faster on the same amount of paper. Neither of those is a fault. They are the definition of the nib, and the fix is having a fine line box alongside rather than expecting one pen to do both jobs.

What buyers reported

Washability is the strongest attribute on this chemistry at 3,757 reports across 53 products, 783 of them negative, a 21% rate. The reports about broad line specifically carry a warning that follows directly from coverage rate: more ink on the page means more ink everywhere else. "I guess it's good that they are washable, but the regular markers didn't get all over clothing the way these do," wrote one buyer of a 200-count broad line box. Another: "My 18-month-old loves these, a little too much. They are washable, but I would suggest laundering any clothes that day."

Colour variety runs at 22% negative across 3,080 reports and 16 products, the second-best number on the type, and the bright and bold tiers are what that praise is about: "Nice variety of colors and easy to wash off the desks." Colour selection adds 1,478 reports at 26% negative.

Drying out is the risk at 314 reports across 4 products with 226 negative, a 72% rate, and a broad nib exposes more surface area when the cap is off. "There were new and fresh with lots color. These were the best and not dried out. They are lasting and very washable," reads one report on a broad line eight. The counts by type are at 3,757 buyer reports on washability.

The Clicks range is the one design answer to that failure in this table. Click quality is a tracked topic at 354 reports across 2 products with 114 negative, a 32% rate, and the reports are about caps rather than ink: "Essential for toddlers. Love the clicks because you don’t have to constantly find and pick up caps that toddlers inevitably take off and leave all".

Storing a broad nib so it survives

Every drying-out report on this range traces back to the cap, and a broad nib is the worst offender because it exposes the most ink to air. Two habits cover it. Cap firmly enough to hear or feel the seat, and store the box flat or tip-down so dye stays at the nib rather than draining into the barrel. A washable nib that has dried will often take ink again from plain water, which is an advantage this chemistry has over every solvent marker on the site and one most people never try before throwing a pen away.

Durability across the type runs to 911 reports across 36 products with 413 negative, a 45% rate, and the positive reports are measured in years rather than weeks when the caps go back on. "Great markers. We have used these for six months and they have not dried out. The kids can hold them easily as well." A 40-count box surviving a school year at $0.37 a marker is the outcome this range is priced for.

The other half of a colouring set

The narrow nib that handles outlines and detail is at Crayola fine line markers, control against coverage. The capless barrel is at Crayola Clicks retractable markers. And the paper these pens are usually pointed at, with its own bleed and buckling problems, is covered at markers matched to colouring books.

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